[ BUSINESS BRIEFS ]

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) is planning to stage a Lunar New Year bazaar for the first time at the Taipei World Trade Center next year, according to organizers.

“In order to boost the shopping spree before the Lunar New Year, we’d like to provide an alternative venue for the public,” said TAITRA’s Kelly Wang (王蕙琳), who is in charge of the event.

The event is scheduled to take place from Jan. 16 to 22 next year, with 120 businesses expected to occupy 300 booths, organizers said.

Indonesia making trade easier

Indonesia has adopted a series of incentives in its trade policies to create favorable conditions for Taiwanese businesses to invest there, an Indonesian official said on Friday.

The policies introduced to encourage investment include a 10-year preferential tax treatment offer and tax subsidies for 129 industries, Indonesian Minister of Trade Gita Wirjawan said during a press briefing in Jakarta.

Late last year, Taiwan and Indonesia signed a memorandum of understanding on a plan to jointly develop Morotai, one of Indonesia’s northernmost islands.

Stop double taxation in Canada

A tax agreement that Taiwan hopes to sign with Canada aims to avoid double taxation and will not cause a negative impact on Taiwanese expatriates there, an official said on Friday.

The main purpose of the agreement is to encourage mutual investment in both countries and avoid double taxation, Representative to Cananda Liu Chih-kung (劉志攻) said during an interview on a Chinese-language radio show in Toronto.

Avoidance of double taxation is part of the groundwork for Taiwan to create favorable conditions to gain entry to regional economic blocs such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership –– a proposed free-trade group made up of Pacific-Rim countries, he said.

The agreement will take effect on the first day of the year after the two sides have signed the agreement and notified each other that the required procedures have been completed.

Show for smart living tech

The Taipei Telecom Applications Show, which will run from Thursday to Sunday at the Taipei World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall, will highlight smart living technologies and the fourth-generation (4G) super-fast mobile broadband technology, according to organizers.

The event will act as an exchange platform for local telecom carriers, application providers and noted mobile device brands, according to the Taipei Computer Association (TCA, 台北市電腦公會). A music competition in which participants must use mobile devices to play and compose music instead of using real instruments is also planned, it said.

More than 150,000 people are expected to visit the exhibition.

Lunar New Year benefits hotels

Hoteliers in Hualien County reported more than 90 percent occupancy rates during the nine-day Lunar New Year holiday, leaving nearly no empty rooms during one of the busiest hotel seasons.

The hotel industry had been worried that disruption caused by days of heavy rain in late December last year on the Suhua Highway might cause problems for business.

However, the highway was reopened before the holiday and hoteliers saw 90 percent occupancy rates, with no empty rooms available on the third and fourth days of the holiday, the Tourist Hotel Association in Hualien County said.

Chinese tourists accounted for more than half the occupancy rate, but it was domestic travelers who contributed most to the rate, the association added.